Pakistani Obsessions

Growing up in Peshawar – a traditional and orthodox society – in the late sixties, most of my college-mates and I were attracted to the leftist ideals of equality and justice. In our middle class conservative families, religion was important but not overwhelming. When Z. A. Bhutto started his movement, we were the first to join his party because we wanted change – social, cultural and economic. Bhutto became our leader, our guide, our Kennedy. Not only were the middle class youth enamored by him, but peasants, farmers, factory workers and ordinary people were also drawn to his egalitarian message of “roti, kapra aur makan.” Even though the country was in the midst of a historical upheaval, we were optimistic. We imagined a modern and progressive Pakistan within our lifetime. By 1975 the hope had faded considerably; our “beloved” Quid-e-Awam had become wholly self-absorbed and interested only in saving his beleaguered regime.

Since then, our nation seems to have spiraled into an unbelievable cycle of self-destruction. Behaving as a crazed drug addict, we continue to indulge in activities which are slowly wrecking us from within. Our main obsessions - India and religion - have caused us irreparable harm. Like a junkie with distorted perceptions, we are either ignorant of the impact of this addiction - the decay in our national fabric – or, in total denial of the problem, which is the utter inability to manage our affairs. In rare lucid moments, when we do recognize the existence of our shortcomings, we seem to lack the will to confront them and take steps towards finding alternative approaches. The “high” of reliving the past glory of our religion and the desire for quick gratification prevents us from making coherent and rational judgments.

To a certain extent, our competitiveness with India is understandable. Although we broke away from them claiming a separate identity, we have lived together for centuries sharing a common heritage. Interestingly, the most rabid India haters don’t even acknowledge our shared traditions and would very much like do away with all the cultural assimilation that occurred over the centuries. Like competitive siblings – even though some would object to this characterization - we always try to outdo them. Such rivalry, when channeled properly and in the absence of military conflict, could have been a powerful impetus for bringing prosperity to our region. We might have been able to achieve such a relationship despite our blood-soaked partition, but alas, the Kashmir problem.

Our desire to “liberate” Kashmir at any expense coupled with our inability to forcibly snatch it away from India - despite successive military adventures – have made us extremely bitter and angry. With every failure we have become even more fixated on India. Astute leadership would have recognized the futility of the military efforts after a couple of failures, or at least after losing half of the country. Instead, our leaders – if one could call them that - moved from conventional to nuclear weapons while mobilizing and supporting jihadi fervor, making the situation even more precarious.

Within Pakistan, Islam has never been under any threat. Most people happily carried on with their lives, practicing or not, under a non-intrusive and relaxed version of the religion. Christians and other minorities did experience discrimination but most of it was non-violent. Occasionally minor tensions between the Shia and Sunni flared up during Ashura. Apart from the anti-Ahmedi riots of 1953 in Punjab – engineered and exploited by the then Chief Minister Mumtaz Daultana for political reasons - incidents of sectarian violence were rarely heard of. Never a fully democratic and open society, Pakistan nevertheless was a peaceful and reasonably tolerant place - religion was vital but we were not fanatical.

The shift to zealotry started when a self-proclaimed socialist, Z. A. Bhutto, turned into a dogmatic grand mufti in the hope of wooing the religious parties by declaring Ahmedis non-Muslims. Instead of standing up to the extremist agitators, Bhutto – like a real feudal - made a cowardly move to safeguard his power. Zia then built his empire of jihadi fanaticism on top of the bigoted hatred for Ahmedis. With Hudood, blasphemy and various other retrogressive laws, he turned the nation towards intolerance and prejudice. Leading the charge was the Wahabi sect of Salafi Islam. Thoroughly opposed to the relaxed and malleable practices of various other sects followed by the majority, dogmatic Wahabis didn’t waste any time assuming the roles of enforcers of morality - sanctioned or not. The practice of religion for spiritual nourishment and personal piety was not enough - Wahabis wanted religion to rigidly control every aspect of temporal life. They were so driven by their rigid beliefs that any difference seemed extremely grave and cause for coercion.

At the end of the Afghan war, where most militant jihadi activities were focused, jihadi zeal found another infidel adversary – India. Kashmir was a wonderful opportunity to show the glory of Islam and take revenge on an old nemesis - a great confluence of our two obsessions.

Those who controlled the wheels of power following Zia – progressive or conservative – did little to change this self-destructive course. Even after we were forced to stop supporting the greatest jihadis of our time – the Taliban – our military rulers didn’t do much to control the radical religious outfits within the country.

The violent acts of religious fanatics – killing and maiming innocent people in mosques, imam baras, churches and mandirs, for example – have become regular news. The consistent exploitation of religious feelings now threatens the basic unity of our nation. The latest eye-to-eye confrontation with India clearly showed that another military adventure against India would be catastrophic. So, why is it so difficult for us to comprehend that our obsessions – India and glorifying religion through jihad – have been absolute and unmitigated disasters? It seems that we are entirely incapable of introspection.

Our so-called leaders often blame others for our problems. Even if we believe that the US, the Zionists and the Mahabharatis have joined together to destroy us – and unfortunately a large number of our population believes this – is this the way to counter such a threat? If we continue to ignore the ruinous results of our actions and remain on the present path, self-destruction will become a metaphor for our entire nation. There will be no escape from the downward spiral of hate and spite, rage and self-pity, poverty and oppression. This will culminate sooner or later in total disintegration of our country.

We can only get out of this mess if we focus our energies on issues like education, economic development and establishing a civil society. It might be very hard for us to do, but we must accept certain realities: a) We cannot take Kashmir by force and India will never accept any solution that requires changing the current borders (Line of Control). A negotiated settlement is our best chance and that will not happen in a short period of time; it will most likely take years of patient negotiation and compromise. In the meantime, it is in our best interest to build stable and non-belligerent relations with India. b) The jihadi approach to problem-solving is absolutely counterproductive and detrimental to our stability. We must completely dismantle all jihadi organizations. For most Pakistanis, religion is an essential part of life but we cannot find solutions for all of our worldly problems through religion alone. Hudood and other such archaic laws –which not only make a mockery of a civil society but our religion as well - must be revoked.

We cannot wait for the messiah to show up and lead us out of this morass. Generals and professional politicians have caused sufficient damage already. We don’t want the intolerance and bigotry of mullahs, maulanas and imams and we have had enough of feudals, waderas, sardars, khans and nawabs. We need a movement of the middle class – a Pakistani velvet revolution; a rebellion of thought, introspection, rationality, pragmatism, tolerance, progress, enlightenment and justice; a dream and a hope.

Khuda nay aaj tak us koam ki halat nahi badli
Na ho jis ko khayal khud apni halat key badalney ka